The 28-Percenters

Tristero over at Digby's explains why we shouldn't be heartened that Bush has the lowest approval rating of any president ever:

Bush At 69% Disapproval. That's the highest ever disapproval for a president. And 28% approve.

You may think that sounds like very low approval but it's not. Actually, it's disturbingly high. Let me explain by way of an example.

You're driving down a highway, minding your own business. However approximately 28 of every 100 drivers hurtling towards you at 55 to 65 mph plus are so utterly unhinged from reality they actually think Bush is doing a good job. Your life is in their hands..

When you put it that way, yeah, 28% is awfully damned high. And they're probably the reason Seattle's smelled a little strange lately. Today's Seattle Times explains why:

A couple of months ago, the U.S. Border Patrol began occasional "spot checks" of every vehicle and passenger arriving in Anacortes off state ferries, the lifeline between these islands and the mainland.

[snip]

San Juan Islanders are used to customs inspections in Anacortes if they take the ferry that comes from Sidney, B.C. Before now, though, they were never subjected to checks on domestic ferry runs.

That changed in February, when federal agents started corralling everyone off domestic ferries into a fenced-off area in Anacortes and questioning them about their citizenship. It now happens once, maybe twice a week; no one has any way to know if they will be stopped.

No wonder the islanders are bandying about terms like "police state." No wonder something stinks to high heaven. Let me not put too fine a point on this, my darlings: The United States Border Patrol is now doing border checks on domestic fucking ferries.

Oh, they have sweet things to say, like how they're protecting us all from the mean nasty terrorists who might sneak in through the San Juans, but you know and I know they've dropped a steaming pile of bullshit on us and are now claiming it's a rose. Let us pause for a moment and remember just how many other Constitutional principles have been eviscerated in the name of "protecting us from terrorists." Now let us reflect on how totalitarian states are created.

That's right. Freedoms and rights are gradually eroded in the name of security, and then one day you wake up with a dictator in power and no power to fight back.

In my own fucking city, this happens. Only the 28-percenters would think this is a great idea and a sound use of government power.

At least the ACLU was invited in and is now diligently sniffing. Methinks it's time to get myself that membership card.

Speaking of totalitarian states, what do the folks at the top got that the folks on the bottom have not? That's right. Bags and bags of money:



But McCain's still in touch with the common muck, right? Wrongo:

Standing before a nearly shuttered factory pocked with broken windows, John McCain on Tuesday urged Americans to reject the “siren song of protectionism” and embrace a future of free trade.

He used his own recent political fortunes — a dramatic fade followed by an unexpected comeback to secure the Republican presidential nomination — to illustrate that depressed Rust Belt cities such as Youngstown can have bright futures.

"A person learns along the way that if you hold on — if you don’t quit no matter what the odds — sometimes life will surprise you,” McCain said.

Did the campaign not appreciate how jarring the juxtaposition would be? He’s talking about the benefits of existing trade policy in front of a
factory that’s closing after the implementation of existing trade policy. He’s a multi-millionaire telling factory workers to “hold on” and wait for “surprises,” apparently not aware of the fact that those are the last five employees of a factory that had more than 100 employees a few years ago.

No, CB, the campaign did not appreciate the sheer magnitude of fuckwittery choosing that location displayed, because they are the cream of the 28-percenters, and they share the same deep connection to the common folk that Marie Antoinette did when she said of starving peasants, "Let them eat cake." She said this not out of petty spite, as is so widely believed, but because in her world, if you ran out of bread, there was always cake available. She could not conceive of a world without cake.

Neither can the 28-percenters.